The Game Development Man Blog. Useful and sweary reading.

First. Post.

Where did this blog emerge from?If you are reading this – it worked! Its a marketing thing as well as an information thing. I need to be able to post about the game development sets I am making while at the same time going over the horrible situation I have found myself in financially and any improvements to that position.

So lets start with income – www.3d-palace.com and the gumroad / udemy income so far this month is £0.00 or $0.00 – my goal is to improve that of course. The plan is as follows;

Where did the money come from for it? I have 14 years experience and I think I have a right to earn money from that. The free tutorial model is dead – people release all kinds of low end shit that covers youtube and its friends like a light dusting of dried horse shit and has about the same quality content. I am not going to release free content any more, not while I have a family that I have to feed. Frankly piracy now accounts for enough of my free content as it is.

I AM A PIRATE.

Did you like the set? Did it help you? Do you have a job? Send me some money then please. I am not joking about the site’s fucking income there. You can send it to paypal@3d-palace.com – tell me which set it was and I will send you the proper version even so that you get the resource files and shit.

WHERE IS YOUR BATH OF CHAMPAIGNE?

Good fucking point. My study is a shared Rec-Room at the moment – please feel free to ask about how hard it is to record in a room that is also my kids communal room.

IS IT HARD TO…

Shut the fuck up.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS BLUE?

Just in case anyone was wondering – Blue is my nickname. Don’t remember why – possibly a passing joke from a Robert Rankin book, I wouldnt be suprised anyway.

AHEM.

Ah yes sorry. Game development. The Joy of GameDev series – an upbeat, funny and above all useful series about making games, game assets, textures and all sorts of useful shit like that.

HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM YOUTUBE CHANNEL X?

Well;

Its informative

Its funny

It’s end to end projects

It’s actually understandable

UNDERSTANDABLE?

Do you like learning from a 14 year old or someone who has serious issues speaking? I don’t.

INFORMATIVE?

Yeah – hows about I show you how to do something useful IN CONTEXT – that means showing you how to make something properly. Perhaps an entire room?

Perhaps how to make doors open.

How to run.

How to fall and die. (not a joke – its quite hard)

Really falling and dying in a game. Trust me. Hard.

END TO END?

It’s like porn really. Do you want to see endless close up shots of someones bleached anus for two minutes at a time or would you like some sort of high budget production number that lasts 45 minutes. Actually don’t answer that, it was a bad analogy.

Other people’s tutorials = 5 minute clips. Useful at times however they are not in context.

My tutorials = Let’s make a science fiction style kitchen. And build everything. And then place all the props. And then add in functionality for the doors and other props. And perhaps add a lift in the corner that works. Anyone want some teleporters?

So nothing like that porn analogy however you get the point.

WHEN DO YOU START?

My head is BATTERED. Seriously. I am trying as hard as I can to pull shit together however I am not in a great place. If I can work out a way to get my study sorted and schedule time properly, then I might start very soon indeed. Like Tomorrow. Again though this depends.

I love game development and building things – the gamedev set on “Ergonomics of Game Level Design” (Pretentious prick title warning) took 4 days. Literally. 12 parts and bam – one of my best sets in my opinion (although you fuckers failed to buy it in droves sadly).

ANY LAST WORDS BEFORE TODAYS RANT ENDS?

Yeah. 350Kilotonnes old mate – we all still miss you at palace. The new blog format I use is a tribute to ye old minipainter. 100% honesty and 100% not giving a fuck. Rest in peace my amigo, you deserve it.

Blue.

(old)

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June 4, 2015

2 Responses on The Game Development Man Blog. Useful and sweary reading."

You have mad skills we all know that. 3d related things you can pretty much turn your hand to what ever and pull it off. Have you considered freelancing or maybe working as an artist at a house somewhere? It’s not like your skill set isn’t good enough. Now in thought of your aformentioned youtubers-toothless-cretin’s-simpsons-cleetus-type-hobowashers, they have in my opinion killed standard 3d tutorial practices.
I would like to draw your attention to your piece about how difficult it is to fall and die in game from a dev standpoint. That’s a technical aspect of the game that no hoe-down amoral undercarrage tickler is going to be able to do. Now swinging around to my point after a wall of text, have you thought about heading into the world of voodoo and witchcraft that is technicality?

Zerflag on palace said to me in a post many years ago “Modellers are a dime a dozen, do something technical like rigging”. I believe that this is the staple of things to come for quite a while yet.

Take CGsociety for instance. Yes we all know that most of the best people from around the world desend on that site, however if you look at their workshops, most are tailored around technicallity. VFX, matte painting that sort of thing. Their workshops are like $680 for an 8 week course. Yet they are pretty much fully booked everytime they release one.
I think you may fare better financially if you move yourself towards what people are actually wanting rather than what you enjoy the most (no offence intended). Also I understand that the tutors are usually seasoned masters at their corner of CG, with the studio names they have worked for as backup to their noteability. However you have more real experience than probably most, so don’t be too disheartened.

Head towards the more technical side of gamedev maybe? I watched your video’s on doors and what-not and it was suprisingly difficult for what seems such a mundane task like opening a door!

Ofcourse these are only suggestions and I’m sure you will eventually do fine as you once did. Just a shame to see your skill-set go to waste as you are remarkably talented, and can learn new stuff very quickly.

Anyways here is to hoping things turn around for you sooner rather than later.

Hello Blue,
I’ve was a palace follower back in the early days, 2004-2005. I was a student back then, so I didn’t have the money to buy the sets, but I did go through all the free tutorials you made, and they helped me a lot. I am an architect, so I didn’t need the character modeling and rigging so much as the rendering and material creation tutorials, so after a while, I looked into lighting, materials and different renderers to advance my education.
I now have started to get into UE4 for real-time presentations of my designs, and that’s how I ended up on the palace again. Through a YouTube video on UE4 you posted, so don’t think YouTube is all bad. Just some of it.
But let me share my thoughts with you, as I have found your post to be something I can really relate to. Being an architect, is a lot like being a 3d artist like yourself. You see, it not only matters if you are good at what you do, but you also have to have luck. And know the right people. And be good with money. And have a business plan. And keep to it. In all, there are a lot more things you have to be good at, and even great at, just to stand out for a second so someone, the right one, will notice your work and grow from there. Then, all the other skills you have, you have to make them work for you, and after doing it a few times, maybe, just maybe, you will start to get appreciated and the work (money) will start rolling in.
Why do I say all this? Well, because I think you have great 3d skills. Your tutorials are really clear and I am looking forward to your UE4 tutorials. But I don’t think making a more complex or highly detailed modeling tutorial is going to make it more desirable. If someone can follow your APU tutorial, I think they can pretty much model anything. So, if you care about my opinion, your business plan may work for you, being what you love to do, but I think you should refocus and give your tutorials a more innovative direction. Seeing you have the skills in modeling, game dev, and animation, find a new workflow for a new generation of artists or optimize for us older generation of modelers or simplify for really old generations of max7 users to get back on top of things.
Well, that’s my take on it. It’s really late, but I was happy to see the site renewed. Wish you the best,
Z
P.s. I never pirated any set from the palace. But I’ll look through the store.